È meglio guardare le figure. Cicli decorativi e cicli narrativi tra XIV e XV secolo

This essay focuses on two mediaeval ceilings whose iconography has turned out to be helpful for philologists and historians of literature. The story of “Madonna Elena” in Palazzo Chiaramonte (Steri) in Palermo (1377-1380) allows a better understanding of the tradition of this legend, which is also transmitted by an Italian cantare. The extant decoration of palazzo Ghiringhelli in Bellinzona (around 1470, but the building was demolished in the 20th century) shows some characters of the anonymous and rather irregular chivalric poems “Falconetto” and “Vendetta di Falconetto”, published in Milan in the second half of the 15th century. In this case the paintings locate more clearly the literary texts in their geographic and cultural context.